Mum Boasts She Gave Alcohol To Three-Year-Old Daughter

In one of the most bizarre boasts we've ever read by a parent, a mum has proudly told a magazine how she gave her daughter alcohol from the age of three so that she would be able to 'drink properly' as a teenager.

Without a droplet of irony, Shannon Burrows said she wanted her daughter Jamie Lee, now 20, to be able to drink 'properly' so that she would have a 'party buddy' when she grew up. Sweet, isn't it?

And the proud mum's lofty ambitions have been realised, because mum and daughter now go out on the town together as 'best mates'. We can feel a deal for a 'How to..' parenting book in the pipeline.

In the interview in Closer magazine, Shannon, from Doncaster, south Yorkshire, said as a teenager, her daughter was drinking cans of Fosters every weekend and had a bottle of vodka to share with a friend to mark her 15th birthday.

By the time she hit the legal drinking age of 18, she was able to hit the town and match her mother drink for drink until 4am.

Shannon said: "We love getting drunk together, if she loses control, I look after her and vice versa.

"We are like best mates. We have a great time."

Shannon said that after getting drunk together, the pair nurse their hangovers together and share a fry-up.

And although she knows people will criticise her attitude towards alcohol, Shannon says that her parenting skills have never been questioned by friends and that she knows what is best for her children.

Shannon started drinking herself at 14 and would often get so drunk that she collapsed in the street. On some occasions she had to be taken home by police.

The mother said that she doesn't worry about her daughter's health because teenagers are 'resilient'.

However, GP Dr Sarah Jarvis, a clinical consultant with the website patient.co.uk, warned that drinking at a young age did not build up a person's tolerance to alcohol.

She told the magazine that early drinking just allows the body to take in more alcohol.

According to Dr Jarvis, Jamie Lee will now have to drink more in order to feel the same effects. And she warned that drinking alcohol may have damaged her daughter's brain development, long-term memory and liver.

Dr Jarvis recommended that women drink no more than three units of alcohol in one sitting.